Social care and health providers across the UK are stretched perilously thin by staff shortages and increasing demands with tight budgets. The administrative strain of managing temporary labour diverts focus from patient and resident care. Implementing a neutral, specialised vendor managed service provider could optimise temporary labour recruitment and empower care providers to realign on their mission. 

How Can a Neutral Vendor Managed Service Help?

Streamlined Workflows

A neutral vendor managed service, serves as a solitary point of contact between care providers and recruiting agencies. Rather than working directly with multiple agencies, care providers give their temporary labour requirements to a neutral vendor, who sources qualified candidates. This reduces time spent in the hiring process. The neutral vendor managed service handles new hire onboarding, payroll and provides real time analytics on workforce spending and use of temporary workers.  

Centralised compliance and credentials management also reduces risks of fines related to Care Quality Commission (CQC) regulations on temporary healthcare and social care workers. With sourcing agency workers managed by the neutral vendor managed service provider, care facilities can redirect more resources to frontline work.

Enhanced Quality and Consistency

When care providers attempt to maintain their own temporary workforces across multiple departments, disjointed systems often emerge, failing to produce optimal outcomes. A neutral vendor managed service enables consistency using standardised processes for supplier selection and temporary labour qualifications. This promotes continuity for temporary workers’ assignments.  

The breadth of a neutral vendor managed service network also means access to extensively vetted talent pools of clinicians and support workers. Specialised providers have vast connections to top UK recruiting firms to fill needs from HCAs to specialised doctors. Upholding standards for credentials, experience and competencies helps ensure higher calibre temporary healthcare and social care workers.

Savings and Compliance

Rather than variable billing rates through different agencies, a neutral vendor managed service provider can leverage economies of scale to negotiate consistent, lower markups for clinical labour. They stimulate competition among recruiting suppliers to reduce costs for facilities needing flexible staffing. Over a neutral vendor managed service contract, the savings on clinical labour can be impactful and typically savings can be in excess of 10% of existing spend.  

The rigorous validation from a dedicated neutral vendor managed service also limits compliance risks from temporary clinician credentials falling through the cracks in a provider’s hiring system. Stricter compliance helps prevent fines or reputational damage.

Partner for Better Outcomes 

A neutral vendor managed service becomes an integrated partner in strategic workforce planning and talent management, not just a vendor. They provide invaluable insights on spending patterns; labour use and market pay rates to inform staffing budgets. Above all, optimising temporary workforce needs through an expert neutral vendor managed service alleviates organisational stress for care providers so they can stay focused on service users.

The mounting pressures of staff shortages and administrative burdens continue stretching UK social and health care organisations. But a neutral vendor managed service provider can be a vital asset for managing temporary workforces more strategically. When providers can offload staffing responsibilities to specialists, they free up resources to get back to what matters most: supporting healthier, happier communities.

About Datum RPO

Datum RPO help companies to better manage their temporary agency workers. We simplify the process, save money, ensure legal compliance and provide complete visibility of spend.

We support companies that use numerous recruitment agencies across the UK, reducing the burden and can provide a single point of contact for all their worker requirements. We ensure that our customers have access to the best available agency workers that are legally compliant and cost effective.

We use technology to ensure that the whole process is seamless and transparent from order through to invoice. Our systems ensure that every worker is audited against legal requirements in real-time, protecting both customers and workers.